James Brainard Taylor Marsh took over the editorship ofThe News when Nettleton departed, becoming the first editor of The News in war times. He edited the paper from 1861 to 1863 (Williams Brothers, 64-65).

J.B.T. Marsh was born in the village of Gaylordsville, in the town of New Milford, Connecticut on August 31, 1839 to Abolitionist parents. He came to Oberlin at the age of 18, in 1858, paying his way through college by working in town and teaching school. Marsh was the first editor of the college paper known as the Student's Monthly, preparing him for his editorial position at The News, which he acquired in his senior year of college (John M. Ellis, "Memorial Services For J.B.T. Marsh," Lorain County News May 26, 1887). It seems that he had great success as a newspaper man in Oberlin. While editing The News. Mr. Marsh graduated from Oberlin College with an A.B. degree in 1862 and studied in the Theology department for one year (Student File, J.B.T. Marsh, Oberlin College Archives).

In 1863 Marsh enlisted in the Civil War as the 1st Lieutenant and Regimental Quartermaster of the 5th U.S. Colored Troops, part of the Union army recruited by John Mercer Langston and led by Giles W. Shurtleff, both residents of Oberlin (Robert S. Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College, vol. 2 [Chicago: R.R. Donnelley and Sons, 1943] 872). In 1864 J.B.T. Marsh married Fanny D. Turner, who was to be the mother of his three children. After the war Marsh returned to Oberlin where he bought The News and took over as proprietor and editor. In 1867 Marsh moved to Chicago to become the managing editor of The Chicago Advance, a new Congregationalist, abolitionist paper. Through this job Mr. Marsh gained a national reputation as a leader in the newspaper business. He held this position for ten years.

After the death of his wife Fanny in 1875, Marsh retired from The Advance. For the next year J.B.T. Marsh traveled in England and Europe with the Fisk Jubilee Singers (Ellis, May 26, 1887). Fisk University was one of the first predominantly African American Colleges. Marsh helped to make the group famous with his book The Story of the Jubilee Singers, 1881, which he wrote while traveling with the singers (Student File, J.B.T. Marsh, O.C.A.). In 1876 Marsh married Abbie N. Ward and he returned to Oberlin to accept the position of Secretary and Treasurer of Oberlin College, which he held for eleven years, until his death on May 18, 1887. During is tenure as Treasurer, J.B.T. Marsh was elected mayor of the town of Oberlin for one term. He was 47 when he passed away from a brain hemorrhage after a long illness that had begun while he toured in Europe with the Fisk University Singers 11 years prior (Ellis, May 26, 1887). Mr. Marsh was best known as a successful newspaper editor and abolitionist, and for his promotion of the Fisk Jubilee Singers.